Hamilton Gallery’s next exhibit entitled “Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet”

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery and Salve Regina’s Department of Art and Art History are pleased to announce the opening of “Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet,” an exhibition of artwork created by the Salve Regina community and accompanied by select specimens from the Nature Cabinet. The exhibition will run from Thursday, Oct. 21, through Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. The Salve Regina community, as well as the public, are invited to experience this exhibition in person at Hamilton Gallery.

There will also be an opening reception for “Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet” next Thursday, Oct. 21, from 5-7 p.m.

With the generous support of an Antone Academic Excellence Award for Special Projects in 2017, a team of faculty and student collaborators within the Department of Art and Art History developed the Nature Cabinet — a public collection of taxidermy, skulls, fossils, coral, books and natural forms permanently housed in Antone Academic Center, Room 101. For additional information about this resource, please visit the Nature Cabinet’s website.

“The exhibition ‘Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet’ was delayed due to the pandemic and the restrictions it imposed on our programming,” explained Ernest Jolicoeur, associate professor and director of the Hamilton Gallery. “This show celebrates an array of creative work and collaborations between faculty and students, some of which date back five years.”

“Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet” transforms the Hamilton Gallery into an enlivened cabinet of curiosities. It offers visitors a glimpse into the Nature Cabinet, and the exhibition will also celebrate the public launch of the digital humanities project cataloguing the Nature Cabinet’s objects into an online archive.

The Nature Cabinet, which students and faculty have been collecting for years, is located in Antone Academic Center.

Each object from the Nature Cabinet has also been catalogued on a website as an online resource tool. 

“We now have some fantastic specimens to share,” said Jolicoeur. “Our taxidermy collection includes a porcupine, bobcat, badger, fox, turkey and skunk. We also have a large variety of coral and skulls of all kinds, including an impressive alligator skull.”

For this exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery, a diverse range of student creative work and natural forms from the Nature Cabinet collection are showcased together for the first time. It features a full spectrum of media from drawing, painting and graphic design to photography, ceramics and web design.

Through these juxtapositions, “Creatures of Imagination” celebrates the continued use and promise of this invaluable and ever-evolving resource. This exhibition highlights the scope of the Nature Cabinet’s impact on learning and growth at Salve Regina.

“Creature of Imagination” captures the scope of how the Nature Cabinet’s collection of nature specimens has creatively inspired students in a variety of ways.

This show was curated by Susannah Strong, associate professor of art and art history, Dr. Anthony Mangieri, chair of the art and art history department, and Jolicoeur.

“The Art and Art History Department is most proud of the collaborative spirit that helped to create the Nature Cabinet, and how this important collection continues to evolve and to provide new opportunities and inspiration for students across the University,” said Dr. Mangieri. “The Nature Cabinet’s online database is an important digital humanities project that opens up new pathways for research and learning and makes our collections available to the world.”

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center on the campus of Salve Regina. It is handicap accessible with parking along Lawrence Avenue and Leroy Avenue. Its exhibits are open Tuesdays through Thursdays 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on weekends and Mondays. Masks are required upon entry.